Yen Sid's Apprentice
by WrittenOnTheSubwayWalls
Summary: A rewrite of "The Mop Scene" in the 2010 film, based more heavily on Fantasia's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".


**Disclaimer:** The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Film 2010) belongs to Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, and Matt Lopez. It is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

**A/N: **Very much based on Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice featuring Mickey Mouse. Adding a bit of the film's "jump starting the heart" earlier in the story. Not immediately recognizable, but over-layed when thought about.

**Yen Sid's Apprentice

* * *

**

…

"_When I come back, you'd better be focused."_

Those were his master's last words before the old sorcerer walked away. Where? It didn't matter, as long as he wasn't _here_.

Dave stood in place, nervously shuffling his right foot on the cement as he watched Balthazar turn the corner. He did feel a tiny bit guilty for, once again, ditching practice for Becky, but… uh-… Nah, he really didn't.

Making his way to the broom closet in two giant steps, he opened the door only to be pummeled by cleaning supplies that were never put away correctly from the_ last_ time he cleaned. When had that been? Dave honestly couldn't remember.

"Ow. Jeez…" Why were there so many mops and brooms in this closet? Becky would be knocking at the door in ten minutes and the place was a mess, not to mention the dirt and grime covering his _own_ clothes after a long, and frankly painful, hour of training.

"Ugh mmm…" He checked the clock. Seven minutes until Becky was would be here. "awwrr…I'm doomed." He whined, looking over the sticky floor, thrown about papers, and peeing dog …peeing dog?

"No! Seriously? Your- Are you- Thanks…just….thank you." Damn dog probably didn't even know he was talking to him.

This was it. He was done. This couldn't be cleaned in ten minutes….seven minutes.

With a heavy sigh, he threw the mops on the floor and ran his hands down his face. Feeling the odd sensation of cold metal, Dave quickly pulled them away and stared at his hand.

The ring.

No.

No, no, no, he wasn't going to mess with that stuff; he could barely lift a chair as it is.

But…

The bark of his dog sounded through the tunnel as Dave's eyes fell onto Balthazar's book lying on the table a few feet away.

He couldn't. He shouldn't.

Looking back up at the clock, he could have sworn his heart sliced a hole in his chest and committed suicide.

Six minutes.

Six minutes before Becky walked through that door.

… Ok.

A thud of pages stirred the dust from the table into the air. Like it was meant to be, the book opened right to the page Dave needed.

"Alright." He confidently pulled up his sleeves and formed a circle of fire around his feet. "Move!" Was the "magic word" he decided to use, throwing his ring hand out towards the mop and keeping his eyes focused on its center.

Nothing happened.

"Ok, second time's the charm….Move!" He threw his hand out again and this time the mop did a little tumble back, flopping around for a bit until it stopped and lay on the floor motionless. "mmkay, not exactly what I-"

CRASH!

The closet door fell open to reveal a grain colored broom falling forwards onto the floor and immediately struggling to get back up.

Dave's left eyebrow twitched.

Moving his hand slowly out towards the broom, he flicked his wrist. Out of the side of the broom's wooden handle popped grain colored tree branch like arms that clawed at the floor until the broom was up right again.

"Good! This is good!"

Like the broom heard what Dave had said, it pranced across the floor like an overjoyed two-year-old, brushing around dirt as it hopped and danced around the space.

"Awesome! Perfect!" Without a second glance, Dave ran up the stairs and out the door, on a mission to change into a cleaner set of clothes.

As soon as the door slammed shut, the broom stopped.

Knock. Knock….Knock. Knock.

Forming some arms of its own, the mop got up off the floor and bent over like a rubber pencil, picking dust clumps from its strings.

Knock. Knock.

Noticeably agitated, the mop straightened up and threw open the door to the closet, stomping away and letting out a group of brooms and mops that had also grown themselves a pair of tree limbs.

On the other side of the room, Chief Broom turned on the faucet in the sink full blast and slammed a dish onto the floor. It hit the ground with a crash and shatter, forcing the group of cleaning supplies to look his way. Aggressively brushing his bristles against the cement, Chief put a bucket in the sink and let it fill up. The other brooms and mops shrugged to each other and watched as Chief slid the bucket of water their way.

* * *

….

He counted down the seconds.

One and a half minutes in the shower, another to get dressed. Dave was making good time.

"Toothbrush, toothbrush…where ah!" Brushing his teeth came next, checking his breath four times before finally deciding it was good enough.

"And my… yes!" He snatched his red hoodie off the hook in his locker and pulled it on, zipping it up his chest. "Good, good, hair…good. Breath, clothes, pants…Ok."

Perfect! All that was left now was to put an end to his mutant-broom-monster, and he'd be ready for Becky.

* * *

…

"ARFF! Brr…ARFF!" All the dog had to do was snap at him twice. The second the animal snapped the second time, Chief Broom wasted no time in locking the pooch up on the top shelf of the bookcase in an old raccoon trap.

"Yeah! And time to sp- WHOA!" Every cleaning supply in the room halted at the sound of the voice.

It was Dave, standing with his mouth in awe, looking over the destroyed workroom with utter disbelief.

"Whao, no NO! What happened here?" The young apprentice yelled. The place was flooded, books were floating around, tables were turned over, absolutely everything was wet. "What did you guys do?"

The supplies looked at each other for a couple of seconds and shrugged, going back to what they were doing before the boy walked in.

"Arg!" Letting the door close behind him, Dave ran out into the knee-high water and grabbed onto the nearest broom. Its arms scratched and clawed at his hoodie, but he finally was able to drag it over to the work bench, take out a small tool and attempt to hack away at it. The rest of the brooms and mops stopped to watch.

"Dave?" A muffled voice shouted through the door.

"Becky…" Crap. The college student looked up at the clock.

He was out of time.

Dave let the frantic broom scramble away from him as he climbed the stairs up to Becky, failing to notice how the broom he'd just assaulted ran over to Chief Broom and hugged it as if it were a human child. Chief Broom pushed the frightened broom off him and balled his fists (tree limb fists), stomping his way up the stairs to Dave.

"Becckyyy…" Dave smiled sheepishly, only holding the door open enough for her to see him, and _not_ the rest of the room. "You're …on tiiime." The blonde frowned.

"You forgot, didn't you."

"What? No! I just…" Looking once over his shoulder, the apprentice saw a very distressed looking broom headed his way. "I- AH!"

"Maybe I should go." Becky shook her head and started to turn away.

"NO! I mean…Oh! Uh, I… I really don't want you to go, but Ummm!" Looking over his shoulder again, the broom was right behind him, arms folded, tapping its bristle feet on the stairs impatiently. "Uh… Yeah, I better…I have issues."

SLAM.

'There goes his date with Becky.' The college student thought miserably, but at the moment he had a bigger problem to worry about…like maybe the angry looking broom with folded arms that looked like it was getting taller by the minute? Yeah, that could be a problem.

"Aaaah... You're a broom." Dave whined stupidly. What else was he supposed to say to an inanimate object?

The broom's arms fell to its side and its bristles shook in an angry fit. Dave nervously lifted his ring hand, but before he could try anything, the broom's arms shot out and yanked Dave up by the fabric of his hoodie.

"Wha-! Wait! Naa! Ok, hol-"

Never in his life had David Stutler been afraid of a broom, but the moment he was flying through the air over that staircase and landing hard into the recently filled lake that once was his work area, he could honestly say he was a little intimidated.

Red flashed in front of his eyes as his left side hit the cement floor under the water. Fighting back his urge to release every breath of air he had in a pain filled yelp, Dave kicked off the floor and shot up to the surface.

"What the hell!" Ignoring the throbbing pain shooting up his side, Dave swam for one of the tables. Finally making it to a flipped over plastic work table, he climbed on and tried to paddle himself over to the tool bench. Unfortunately, the cleaning supplies had the same idea.

"Sh-Crap! No…" He paddled in the opposite direction, finally reaching one of his coils and stepping onto it.

Chief Broom, whom Dave was sure had been getting progressively bigger since Dave had come back down, was now twice as tall as he was and clawing through the water to get to him, forming powerful waves of dirty water with every step.

Damn, and all he wanted was to have the room clean and decent for Becky. Was it just him, or was his life a series of disasters playing one right after the other?

"AHH!" Chief's limb swatted at Dave with enough force to catch his sleeve and tear through it. "Alright, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The boy yelled through the waves of water, now making his coils spark and heat up with angry zaps of energy. "Stop! I'm sorry! Understand? I'm apologizing!"

Another swat caught him across the face.

This was a mess; this was _more_ than a mess, this was _dangerous_! Should he call for Balthazar? Was he even around? Dave had been shouting since he first came down to find the mess. If the old man hadn't heard anything by now, he never would.

'Great, now I'm seriously doomed.' He tried his best to stay focused and dodge the swinging arms of his broom-monster-creation, but there was only so far he could go before he slipped, not that he could stay clinging to the coil much longer anyway; the thing was practically a live wire.

Another wave of dirty water crashed into the coil and this time it zapped the inside of Dave's arms. With a howl, the apprentice was forced to let go, smacking the back of his head on the floating plastic table as his body slipped underneath the water…

...

* * *

…..

His eyes opened to a cloud of smoke. Sparks flew past his head, fire shot up around his body. He could feel its heat on his skin.

It was dark; all he could see was the ground beneath him. He was standing on dark colored stone…outside, for sure. The air was too fresh to be indoors.

Slowly, the smoke began to clear, but it was still too dark to see beyond the circle of green fire around his feet.

"Hello?" He called.

Suddenly, five balls of fire flew past his face. The solid ground he was standing on lifted into the air, so that he had to fall to one knee to keep balanced.

Up, up up… it never stopped. Forever seemed to go by until it finally did. Daring himself to look down, Dave got up and stepped to the edge of his circle to peer over the side.

"Oh, god." He must have been higher than the Empire State building itself! It was dark, but he could still see the difference between the pitch black ground and the dark blue sky... and he was nowhere near the pitch black ground.

Was he dreaming?

His attention was immediately brought back to the present as another ball of fire shot past his head, this time almost knocking him off where he stood. Dave watched it disappear behind him and looked forward just in time to see the next fire ball zooming straight for his head. Panicking, Dave quickly lifted his hand to it, closing his eyes readying his body for the pain…but it never hit him.

Blinking, the apprentice turned his face back to his hand. There, hovering before it, was the fire ball. It had stopped right at his fingertips and was now calmly waiting for its master's command. Dave's eyes searched for the ring that should have been on his finger, but it was missing… then how was he controlling it?

Another came shortly after…He stopped that one too.

How…?

He waved his hand up in the air and the fire followed, changing from green, to pink, to orange, and getting larger with every move.

"Sweet." He grinned and forcefully thew his hand up in the air; the fire followed, exploding in the sky like fireworks. It was amazing, truly the greatest feeling he'd ever had in his life!

He did the same to the next…and the next… after a while, he was able to pull on the sparks of the fireworks and control them too.

"This can't be happening." Dave breathed and took a step back… He couldn't breathe…. He couldn't breathe…HE COULDN'T BREATHE!

Another ball of fire flew past him while he tried to take a breath, but he couldn't… his lungs ached. His side hurt. Why? What was happening to him? Seeing a ball of fire that was flying directly towards his face, Dave stopped it and grew it as big as he could. Maybe if he made the firework big enough, he would be able to see where he was.

After a moment of gasping for air while still moving the fire around to gain power, he threw it up into the sky and shot it with another smaller green orb. It exploded in a remarkable array of colors, spraying sparks everywhere while Dave continued to choke and cough. His eyes closed on tears that formed from the coughing and when he opened them, he saw that the sparks from his firework were hovering over him. Before he could raise his hand to stop them, they shot down into his chest. A blinding flash slammed into him and forced him to close his eyes and fall backwards off the rock. His mind fuzzed and came to a halt as the world around him crashed down. Falling… Falling…

…

* * *

Another flash. More pain. Damn, what's happening to him?

"Dave? Dave, can you hear me?"

Balthazar…

"Dave! Dave…"

His voice sounded close by… very close by… like, right next to him.

"Dave, open your eyes."

With a groan, Dave obeyed, opening his eyes enough to see a very blurry looking Balthazar kneeling over him.

"W-What-?" He tried to talk, but the pain in his chest was making it hard to breathe… then again, at least he _could_ breathe.

"What were you thinking?" Balthazar's sharp voice growled.

'Great, he's angry.' Dave thought and tried to sit up.

"No, just stay there!" A heavy hand pushed him to the floor. "You don't move until I tell you to move, understand?" Balthazar was more than angry, he was furious. Dave hadn't known him for long, but you didn't need to know Balthazar Blake any more than five minutes to be able to tell when the man was upset beyond reason.

When Balthazar had left his side, Dave let his eyes close. He had no idea what had happened to him after he'd fallen off of that coil, but the dream that kept replaying in his mind seemed more real to him at the moment then lying on this floor did.

"You nearly killed yourself, Dave!" He heard his master's voice shout from a few feet away. "You have abused the sacred art, and you have abused the Merlin circle."

"Right." Dave hissed and rolled over.

"Dave," Balthazar's voice snarled like a lion ready to eat his dinner. "I thought we understood the meaning of don't move until I tell you to?"

"My bad." The twenty-year-old rolled back over onto his back and laid there with his eyes shut. The last thing he wanted to do right now was fight with the guy.

"Magic isn't a game." Balthazar continued. "No, short cuts!"

"No, short cuts." Dave agreed and again rolled over, forgetting that he "understood" the meaning of don't move until told to. He wasn't too surprised when he felt a strong hand clamp onto his shoulder and push his back to the floor. "I get it!" He yelled up at the older man, opening his eyes and seeing the thousand-year-old sorcerer's face twisted in livid rage. "I messed up! I know! And I got my ass kicked!"

Something in the older sorcerer's face softened.

"A little longer, and you might have either drowned or been electrocuted. That is how a sorcerer, not only loses his power, but loses his _life_, Dave."

Brushing the hand off his shoulder and sitting up on his elbows, Dave was now able to feel every ache, pain, and bruise on his body.

"Yeah and what rule is that? 14? 27? I... I can't e-even remember! What difference, does it make if it's obvious that I can't even control a few mops!"

"The stronger the man, the stronger the sorcerer."

"Thank you! Thank you for another useless motto!"

* * *

**A/N: **And on with the movie ;)

I wanted to put the "jump starting the heart" bit in here; that way, at the end, it's not such a random thought in Dave's head that one could do such a thing.


End file.
